


In Dreams They Cry

by High5Nerd



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Goddesses, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Lucid Dreaming, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive, References to Depression, Religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22914772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/High5Nerd/pseuds/High5Nerd
Summary: You wake from another restless night. The dreams are becoming too much, and making you doubt reality.What if the real world is the world you dream of?
Relationships: Prince Sidon & Reader, Prince Sidon/Reader
Kudos: 74





	In Dreams They Cry

**Author's Note:**

> I've been feeling really down lately, so I kind of wrote this for my own self care and made sure to keep the reader in a basis where it's enjoyable for everyone.  
> Or, er, hoping that it is enjoyable.   
> Let me just take my foot out of my mouth so you can get into it!
> 
> Want to support my work? Drop a dime at paypal.me/emmadooster

Your eyes bolted open for the fifth night in a row. Met with screaming silence mixed with the attempted lull of the nearby palace river, you slowly leaned up, trying not to rouse your Zoran boyfriend.

Lately, your nightmares have all been connected. They’re all continuous as well, whether you sleep for eight hours or take a thirty minute nap. It’s as if you live in another life away from the current one. A life where there was nobody but round-eared Hylians and...everything your people fight against.

Peeking over your shoulder, you were relieved to see that Sidon hadn’t stirred at all. His snores purred lightly in the core of his chest, his mouth partly open as an unattractive drop of drool pools under his cheek into his pillow.

Sadly smiling to yourself at the innocent sight, you shifted back the summertime sheets and sat at the edge of the water bed, combing your hair with shaking fingers.

Maybe there’s a reason you’re having these terrible nightmares. In one moment, you’re crying your heart out at the death of a relative you don’t recognize in your waking world, but it was still so jarring in the moment of the dream, as if you’ve known them all your life, watching them grow older, blinder, withering in weight before their final laughter you would ever hear.

In another, you’re trapped in a hospital room with an armed guard. Nothing was on you other than a paper dress, exposing from behind and making you shiver in the pale white room. There was no kindness in this guardsman’s eyes, only hatred and fear. Despite the vulnerability you held, his hand always rested on his baton, daring you to act wildly like a madwoman in vintage books.

The pain grew in your chest, a lump forming in your throat. Is this a sign from the goddesses? Are you living a second life while asleep, but awake in another world?

In these nightmares for five days, you’ve lived five years on the other side. You’re taken to this world of misery away from contented living and warm peace every time the sun goes down until you wake and refuse to let yourself sleep.

Panic struck through your body. Afraid of Sidon’s charming ability to sense something wrong with you, you slowly stood up and walked down two steps towards the front viewing room. Maybe the moonlight against the water will calm your nerves.

Maybe you just needed water. But no matter if you sipped at the ice cold cup or chugged, the fear never left your throat. You just wanted to vomit.

There were dream remnants still flying around your head from the previous nights. A boy you’ve never met in your current world broke you, revealing you’ve been the ‘other’, the ‘mistress’, the entire time, and in the prideful glee of his now fiance, he promised eternal friendship before deserting you alone in an empty bungalow. Falling to your knees and sobbing your heart out to the annoyance of your roommate didn’t ease the pain the slightest, until you woke yourself up to your own wet cheeks and hiccuping cries.

The fourth night was when Sidon started to notice you were becoming lethargic, reactions becoming slowed. His excitement for planned travel destinations to visit Link and Zelda with you faltered when you would blink slowly at him, eyes rolling up into the back of your mind before recognizing him and giving him an attempted smile of thrill, and adding an idea for a gift for the two when reaching their home.

Sidon heard you awaken that fourth night, crying softly hours before the sun would rise. Half awake, he pulled you close and hummed into your soft hair, stroking your shoulder as you cried into his neck.

“There, there...good, good, girl. My favorite small girl...” he sleepily murmured, causing you to smile at his genuine sleep-talking in the midst of your night terror.

He may have slept partway through the fifth night of your nightmares, but it wasn’t until he felt the bed shift that he groggily opened his eyes. Even before the nightmares, if you ever left the bed to use the bathroom or suddenly wake up with the need to drink water, he wouldn’t go back to sleep until you were back. The bed was too cold without you.

At seeing you hunched over, shoulders shaking and your face in your hands, he immediately sat up, wide awake. The deterioration was clear enough, but now he couldn’t shake it off it wasn’t just odd occurrences of bad sleep. Something was haunting you.

“My love?” he asked, startling you a bit. When you turned around to him, he became frantic. Your eyes were more than just watery from tears, there was terror in them.

He rushed over to your side, carrying a lit bioluminescent orb used as a nightlight for the both of you. Setting it on the foot table before the two of you, he knelt beside your sitting frame. Ashamed, you hid your face in your hands.

“I’m s-” you started to apologize, but he gently hushed you as he took your hands away from your face, fingers eager to lace with your own.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were having nightmares?” he asked, rising to sit next to you.

“Because you told me you aren’t religious, and I’m scared that...that they’re from the goddesses.” you cried.

Sidon looked hurt at that for a moment, then nodded in understanding. “Darling, I would never deter you from confiding in me no matter what my religious belief is,” at seeing that it didn’t help, his heart reached out to you further, “Oh, my mortal goddess, shh...come here, my love,”

You immediately curled yourself into his lap, crying into his chest. As he stroked your hair the way you liked, he lifted you a bit enough for him to bury soft kisses into your hair, “Tell me this night’s troubles. I want to help.”

You told him everything. How every time you dream, it was as if you were living a different life, in an alternate, horrible universe.

Everything from the dangerous neighbor downstairs to the break in and having protectors you called disregard the danger as a sign of madness, Sidon listened quietly but praying that your pain would not continue beyond this. Hearing your sobs and the distress of the dreams caused his own heart to wrench in fear for worry in you.

“Every night, the dreams connect. It’s all one life,” you looked up at your love, desperate, “Sidon, what if I am? What if the goddesses are making us live differently when we fall asleep? What if these dreams are reality and _this_ is a dream?”

Sidon looked as if something tasted foul. “This is why I hate the whole basis of vengeful goddesses. They instill fear in good people like you.”

“Am I wrong? Please tell me I’m wrong.” you begged, clutching to him, afraid he would disappear if you blinked.

He held you tighter, finally able to gently press his soft, empathetic lips to yours. Almost instantly, your heart skipped happily at the gesture. Even after years of courting, he still has that effect on you, and you on him. You felt just a tiny bit better from that alone.

Sidon reluctantly pulled away, gently playing with your bedhead hair and honestly looking into your eyes, “You’re not wrong to worry. You’re especially not wrong to think you’re cursed, we’ve all had moments where we think the goddesses hate us for the Trinity’s follies. But you’re wrong in that world being reality. When you wake, where are you?”

“In our bed.” you blushed, smiling softly. His own cheeks turned a dusty shade as he mirrored your smile, almost looking proud that it was _his_ , even better, _yours._

Sidon gently tucked his hand under your chin to look at him again, his heartwarming, empathetic smile graceful against his lips, “The goddesses would be mad themselves if they’re to harm you, the woman I love. And if they are, I’ll storm their heavenly gates and cut them down to free you,” new tears, ones born from heartwrenching love, filled your eyes as you beamed at him.

Ever so adoringly knightly, as usual. He returned the same smile, wiping your tears away carefully with his fingers.

“Do you feel better talking about this with me? Because if you’d like, we can always go to the healing center. I heard Gruve has an opening for an appointment tomorrow afternoon.”

“Yeah, honestly, it would be good to get a healer’s perspective on this...but,” you smiled up at him and closed your eyes as you pressed your forehead and nose to his. At hearing him sigh, relieved, you continued, “just talking with you makes me think I’ll be okay.”

“You hide so much strength, darling one. Endure, at least for me before learning to endure for yourself.”

You smiled, feeling your throat close up from incoming tears of love, “You ass. You’re trying to make me cry on purpose now.”

Sidon chuckled, arms encircling you into a warm embrace as his lips met with your own. At another part for breath, he brushed his fingers through your hair, enjoying the sight of you starting to lull sleepily into his hands.

“I mean it. You’re worth more than twenty thousand kingdoms, and not just to me. Never be afraid to confide in others when the burden grows too great. You’re my lifemate...and I know you’re braver than most. Endure and conquer,”

His low whisper further guided you to sleep, like fallen palm fronds lapping against ocean tides. But before you allowed yourself to nestle your face in the crook of his neck as he shifted to lie on the couch with you, you couldn’t help but fail to hide your grin.

He called you his lifemate.


End file.
